Vice President U S

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. Dan Quayle has a net worth of roughly $1.2 million, but stands to gain income later in his life from a family trust worth an estimated $600 million, according to financial disclosure forms released by his office Friday. Quayle's largest personal asset is his home in McLean, Va., a wealthy suburb of Washington.

In Mitt Romney's quest for the perfect presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman seems to have the right stuff. With nearly 14 years in Congress, he's an experienced politician at ease on the public stage. Having served in President George W. Bush's Cabinet, he knows his way around the executive branch. He's a well-liked native son in an important battleground state. But most important, say those who know him, he will never go rogue. "It's important that his mate doesn't distract, and Portman won't do that," said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who came to regret his part in selecting then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain's 2008 running mate.

On their first day as a campaign team, Vice President George Bush and his designated running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle, spent much of Wednesday on the defensive--answering questions about the background and qualifications of the young, little known man whom Republicans are about to nominate for vice president.

The gaffes keep piling up: the untimely comments stoking fears of swine flu, dismissals of Russia that seem straight out of the Cold War. But in defiance of the normal rules of American politics, Vice President Joe Biden appears to be solidifying his relationship with his boss and accumulating more assignments central to the administration's agenda. Having lined up support in the Senate to assure passage of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan, Biden was recently tapped by President Obama to play a bigger role in the healthcare debate that is now dominating the congressional agenda.

For the last four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has made the controversial claim that his office is not fully part of the Bush administration in order to exempt it from a presidential order regulating federal agencies' handling of classified national security information, officials said Thursday.

In a dramatic attempt to put a major controversy behind him, embattled Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. Dan Quayle told the Veterans of Foreign Wars Monday night that "absolutely no influence" was used to get him into the Indiana National Guard in 1969 as the Vietnam War was raging. "My unit had vacancies before I applied, when I applied and after I applied. There was no influence whatsoever," Quayle said. "You more than any other group of Americans need to know the facts."

Vice President George Bush, in a decision that stunned Republican political strategists and some of his own supporters, Tuesday selected Dan Quayle, a relatively unknown 41-year-old junior senator from Indiana, as his vice presidential running mate.

Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle offered a brief but passionate defense of his National Guard service to a sympathetic audience of Guard members and veterans on Wednesday, while his Democratic counterpart, Lloyd Bentsen, began some gentle needling designed to keep the issue of Quayle's military service alive. "I'm not looking for any medals," the Indiana senator said to the cheering audience of about 1,000 present and former Guard members, but "I served loyally."

Vice President Dick Cheney cast his first tie-breaking vote in the Senate on Tuesday, rescuing President Bush's budget plan from a Democratic effort to scale back the administration's $1.6-trillion tax cut proposal in order to increase funding for a new Medicare prescription drug benefit. Cheney cast his vote during debate on a budget resolution that includes the outlines of Bush's fiscal policy, including his tax cut plan.

Dan Quayle, the handsome, blond junior senator from Indiana who was chosen as George Bush's running mate on Tuesday, is the first member of the post-World War II baby boom generation ever to be selected for nomination to a national office. At age 41, he is an energetic and affable conservative who specializes in defense and health issues, the grandson of the late conservative newspaper publisher Eugene Pulliam and the father of three young children. His wife, Marilyn, has a law degree.

WASHINGTON -- Voters have by now memorized Sarah Palin's string of historic firsts on a Republican presidential ticket: first woman, first hockey mom, first moose dresser. Now it turns out the 44-year-old Alaska governor has injected another groundbreaker into national politics. She's a winker. She winks on rope lines and at rallies. She winked at least six times at 70 million viewers on the vice presidential debate platform opposite her rival, Sen. Joe Biden, who weighed in on the nonverbal communication scale by grinning like a nutcracker.

Sarah Palin must sound authoritative and authentic. Joe Biden must sound informed and inoffensive. Both need to reach through the television to connect with middle America. With Wall Street gyrating and voter interest skyrocketing, tonight's televised contest stands as an oddity: a vice presidential debate that could actually matter. The stakes could hardly be greater, particularly for the Republicans.

Alaska's investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power, a potentially damaging distraction for John McCain's presidential campaign, ran into intensified resistance Tuesday when the attorney general said state employees would refuse to honor subpoenas in the case. In a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, Republican Atty. Gen. Talis J. Colberg asked that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature voted to compel them.

Barack Obama is known for his eloquent speeches, but as he tries to regain his lead in the polls and beat back an energized Republican ticket, he is adding something new to his delivery: volume. Obama has uncorked some thunderous lines in recent campaign stops, showing a measure of emotion the normally unflappable candidate has seldom displayed. His speeches are now laced with indignation as he argues that anyone who sees John McCain and Sarah Palin as vehicles for change is being duped.

The emergence of Sarah Palin as a political force in the presidential race has left many top Democrats fretting that, just two weeks after their convention ended on an emotional high, Barack Obama's campaign has suddenly lost its stride. Obama has responded aggressively this week to Palin's presence on the Republican ticket, using TV ads and campaign rallies to attack her contention that she is a political reformer who will take on the Washington establishment -- a role Obama has long claimed as his alone.

Three of the politicians seeking the nation's highest offices appeared in lengthy broadcast interviews Sunday, but the hottest topic for all of them was the missing fourth candidate -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Palin, the Alaska governor whom Arizona Sen. John McCain selected as his running mate more than a week ago, has yet to make an unscripted public appearance. Instead, she has used her public events to deliver speeches, not to answer questions directly from voters or reporters.

Ronald Reagan's White House physician said Monday he now believes that executive power should have been transferred to then-Vice President George Bush after Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981. Dr. Daniel Ruge said that in hindsight, the emergency provisions of the 25th Amendment allowing for the transfer of authority should have been invoked after the assassination attempt.

Vice President Dick Cheney is being treated for a blood clot in his left leg, his office announced Monday -- a condition that, if left untreated, can be deadly if the clot breaks loose and reaches the heart, brain or lungs. The vice president, who has had four heart attacks and experienced other cardiovascular problems over the last three decades, is being treated with blood-thinning medication, said his deputy press secretary, Megan McGinn.

Here is something you might not have thought about much lately, but by the time Nov. 4 rolls around, trust us, you will know it better than you know your own mother: Governors make decisions. They are chief executives. They veto stuff. They never vote "present." Sarah Palin took a few minutes during a luncheon for the Republican Governors Assn. on Thursday to press the argument that her 21 months as Alaska's governor have given her a leg up on her opponent, or rather, her ticket mate's opponent.

We knew that Wednesday night's boffo speech to the Republican National Convention by newly minted vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a huge hit inside the house. But perhaps no one among the GOP faithful swooned more than Rush Limbaugh. El Rushbo, the self-appointed voice of broadcast conservatism to his many millions of faithful listeners, had been less than enthusiastic about the candidacy of Sen. John McCain. But he has been an enthusiastic booster of Palin, and Sept.